The security around the design of the Samsung Galaxy S3 was so intense it became "tiring and frustrating", the men in charge of creating the phone have revealed.

Samsung has revealed some of the secrets of the S3's production, including the intense security around the phone -- which was actually three phones, as engineers built different prototypes to avoid leaked photos.

Rather than working towards one set design, the S3 team built the three prototypes with each one treated as a final design. The constant adjusting of the design to keep it secret caused problems for the engineers.

"For security reasons, we had to make the antenna over and over," senior engineer BeoungSun Lee explains. "We had
to come up with a new antenna every time the new design came out. To be honest, it was quite tiring and frustrating."

Amid possibly the most hype and rumour ever surrounding a phone, it seems the phone's engineers "had a hard time with all the attention", resisting so many questions from friends and family that they felt they were living a secret agent-style double life. That secrecy even extended to other Samsung employees, with the S3 kept in a separate lab locked away behind fingerprint scanners for the core team members.

With no pictures allowed, the team in charge of sourcing the materials to build the S3 even had to do so based on a verbal description rather than a picture.

The S3 prototypes were kept locked up even when carried down the corridor at Samsung HQ. And when the phone went to partners and suppliers, it was hand-delivered by Samsung wonks instead of sent by courier, in special dummy cases that gave no clue to the final design.

Does the secrecy around new gadgets build suspense or just invite disappointment when it's finally unveiled? As a consumer, do you want to glimpse the design process? And did Samsung's designers get the S3 right? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.

About the author

Rich Trenholm is a senior editor at CNET where he covers everything from phones to bionic implants. Based in London since 2007, he has travelled the world seeking out the latest and best consumer technology for your enjoyment.
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